Any good "compact" phones out there..

[bastage]

So I am looking for another device. I had been waiting for the Nexus 5x, but comparing the size to my current LG G4 it is just to freeking big to bother changing to (why the hell isnt it closer to the nexus 5 size).

Ultimately a screen around 5" or a little smaller is fine. The things that are most important are as follows

T-Mobile LTE - No band 12 in my area, but I needs the rest.
Size obviously - I keep my phone in my front pants pocket & hate how big my g4 is.
Camera - This is the only reason that I am not still using my Nexus 5
OS - as close to google pure as possible. I dont necessarily have to have marshmallow the day it comes out either.
Storage - 32 GB is minimum unless I can pop a Micro SD in but would be happy to pay for more.
Battery Life - This was my other big gripe with my N5. I want to be able to make a day without having to plug it in to charge several times (g4 is more then enough)

Wireless charging would be nice but not a deal breaker.

Everything else wise I would like to not be a huge amount of hardware performance behind my G4, but I can handle a bit of a hit.

No iCraps, touchwiz & Anything Sony - Wont deal with any of these at all.

Not worried about carrier subsidizing or financing.

Is there anything on the market that meets what I am looking for or am I boned.

 

[Deleted member 245375]

Nothing wrong with the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, it's absolutely amazing what they've packed into that device with a 4.6" display (keeping it at 1280x720 ensures massive battery life savings and reviews are showing it has 3+ days of battery life in fairly heavy use).

T-Mobile LTE: yep, and Band 12 support too.
Size: compact, as requested, 4.6" display
Camera: 23MP and the reviews say it's awesome
OS: not much added overall but it's not a Nexus obviously so there's some Sony stuff
Storage: 32GB minimum with microSD for up to 200GB more if you're crazy for it
Battery Life: as stated, some of the published reviews were showing 3 days of battery life, one even went into a 4th day iirc so, this one isn't going to die on you with 'regular' usage certainly.

But alas, you said you won't touch Sony devices. Well, that's pretty much the best compact phone there is today, Snapdragon 810 powered and IP68 certified for water-resistance and dust-proof too with a fingerprint reader that's getting rave reviews for how fast it responds plus a whole bunch of other great features. Yes it has a plastic case but I mean really, a metal case on a device that emits and receives radio signals... it's actually a positive to be plastic in this respect.

 

[Mav451]

Hmm how long would it take for Sony to get Marshmallow?

 

[Deleted member 245375]

I wouldn't expect to see Marshmallow on the Z5 devices till at least March of 2016 if even that soon. I also don't get the rush to get new versions of Android (or any mobile OS really) 'cause they're just rehashing the same old stuff nowadays. The differences between the major updates are becoming so irrelevant for the most part in terms of the software that companies will have to resort to doing something with the hardware itself ala Apple not really having anything new or truly outstanding to bring to the game with iOS 9 so, they created a new hardware gimmick known as 3D Touch for the iPhone 6S/6S+.

As MKBHD on YouTube said recently in a video, finding the perfect smartphone nowadays is not so much talking up the device's good points but instead - because they all tend to be the same and do the same things and run the same version of their respective OSes - it's now become more fashionable to compare the faults and what's wrong with given devices as the tool for comparison.

Makes sense to me but I can't speak for others.

 

[Mav451]

Marques is great at providing layman, easily understood commentary on tech.
He still uses words like 'snappy' and 'crisp' - which doesn't exactly do much for me. But I know I can pass these links to my layman friends, so there's the benefit there.

Ironically, his 5 minute video on why every phone has a 'but' (despite hitting the big 4 of perf/batt/display/cam) is a justification on why his job exists. Hype, speculation - these all require coverage for his userbase to consume and comment on. How nice

That DL column he linked cited Kellex's wager that Nexus 5x/6P optics would be bad.
Kellex was wrong - but it's a good thing when Google surprises us in that regard. I would know - the Nexus 5 (2013) was noticeably worse than the iPhone 4s (2011).

You might be asking - what is my 'but' for a smartphone?
I wanted LG G4 or better optics. Preliminary reviews via DXOMark - suggest yes.
I wanted better performance and it had to be Google hardware - well that leaves only the 5x/6P. Easy enough haha. And then there was price. The 6P defaulting at 32GB made it an easy decision for me.

So my only 'but' is the wireless charging.
And lo and behold - one my peers had a nice rant in our Group Hangouts this week on why he wasn't going to upgrade because Qi chargers. Eh, I'm not holding back my smartphone because of that. If that's the worst 'but' I have for the 6P, I can live with that.